I have been baking bread this winter - so references to bread-making have jumped out at me in my reading. There is a strength in slowing down and living with the natural rhythms of life - such as the unhurried rising of dough! In her book about the significance of menial tasks, like housework (and cooking), which many of us would rather pay someone else to do so that we can get on with more "important" things, Kathleen Norris writes: "I find bread baking to be a hands-on experience of transformation, and during the quiet times when dough is rising, I often sit and write, aiming for transformations of my own." (The Quotidian Mysteries, p. 15)
Jesus - who would have been familiar with the daily ritual of baking in every household - compares nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven or yeast: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast used by a woman making bread. Even though she used a large amount of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough." (Matthew 13:33) So the Kingdom of Heaven impacts everything it comes in contact with!
Would it be a stretch to say that we are all leaven in the world around us - silently impacting everyone we come in contact with? If we grumble and complain, is that a leaven that brings others down - just as our hope and joy are contagious, too?
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